Featured Artist Nithya Swaminathan

Artsy Shark presents the colorful portfolio of featured artist Nithya Swaminathan. Enjoy her work and visit her website for more!

I am a self-taught Indian artist who loves to explore a whole gamut of subjects and media. I have dabbled with media like colored pencils, pen and ink etc, but my current work is restricted to Acrylics and Oils. I especially love the versatility of Acrylics and how wonderfully they work with texturing elements.

I paint from photos in the comfort of my studio, which is why I spend every waking minute walking around with a camera and capturing everything that looks like it would make a good painting. While most of these photos get discarded, a few get to be the crux of my next masterpiece. I choose my subjects very instinctively, and do not restrict myself to one or two of them.

My art is inspired from my immediate surroundings – the landscapes that I come across in my travels or the patterns and forms in everyday objects. Art, to me is an attempt to immortalize every such moment that makes me pause and marvel at the beauty around. I also draw inspiration from all great art from the masters – old and contemporary. Living in Europe gives me a fantastic opportunity to visit museums at the drop of a hat, and each visit leaves me wanting for more.

My work style is loose realism, and my most preferred subjects are the Human Figure, Florals, Still Life and human Portraits. My paintings are rendered with the palette knife and burst with a lot of interesting textures. They are characterized by bold and strong usage of color, with sharp contrasts and dramatic lighting. I love rendering details with the palette knife, as they are extremely difficult and obviously most gratifying, which is why I paint the human figure in all its detail with the knife. It is also my moment of Zen.

My still lifes are done from life, as the process of coming up with an arrangement is as interesting as painting it. When it comes to the portrait, I find children far more interesting and challenging than adult portraits. I relish the challenge of capturing innocence on canvas, and do I need to mention that my favorite model is my little daughter? I always work in a series as this gives me the opportunity to delve deeper into subjects from varied viewpoints.

My favorite ongoing series of dancers explores Belly Dance and the Tango. One of my immediate goals is to start working on Indian dance forms which are so varied and unique. I am researching in that area to build a body of work themed on dance forms. I am also working on my figure series “Impressions of a European Summer”, which gives a glimpse into the short lived summer in this part of the world – paintings of people going about doing their things. This series has helped me get comfortable with the human figure and it will go on till I run out of references.

My goal as an artist is to establish my brand online and become a well collected artist. I am self represented and intend to remain so for the near future. I sell my work through my website and stores on Etsy and Artfire, and have an active presence on Twitter and Facebook.

Painting with the palette knife makes my work unique and textured, and would make someone want to touch and feel them. It excites me to no end when I actually touch a finished piece, and I hear the same from my clients too.